| A |
| |
| Agent: A person who handles incoming and outgoing calls. He or she is also known as call center representative or customer care representative. |
| |
| After-Call Work (ACW): It is also known as wrap-up or post call processing (PCP). The work done by call center agent besides taking calls like entering data, filling up customer information and making necessary outbound calls that are required to complete a transaction process. |
| |
| B |
| |
| BPO: It is an acronym for "Business Process Outsourcing". |
| |
| Business Process Outsourcing: It is process of delegating the non-core business functions to a third part service provider. Here the non core business functions means back office or those jobs that do not constitute the core business functions |
| |
| C |
| |
| Call Center: A centralized office where calls are transmitted and received |
| |
| Captive Center: An operation that is owned by an offshore company. The activities are performed offshore but are not outsourced to a third party |
| |
| Co-Sourcing or Cosourcing: It is a kind of arrangement between the internal staff and the outsourcing vendors. Both perform specialized business functions. |
| |
| D |
| |
| Delayed Call: A call that is placed in queue and cannot be answered immediately. |
| |
| Dialed Number (DN): The telephone number that is dialed by a call center agent to initiate a call. |
| |
| E |
| |
| E-Sourcing: This is one of the newest forms of outsourcing in which Internet is used a medium of delivering various services. In this the ASP (application service model) is used. This enables the delivery of business process outsourcing over the Internet. |
| |
| F |
| |
| Function Process Outsourcing: Most of the business processes of a company end with its existing customers who pay their bills. However, there many internal processes that are run to support people within the company and are often performed within a single department. These departments are human resources, travel, finance and accounting, and other call center services. When these BPO services are outsourced, along with the supporting technologies and supply chains that helps to provide these services then it is referred to as functional process outsourcing. |
| |
| G |
| |
| Gainsharing: It is a contract structure where both the customer and provider share financial gains in the value that is decided mutually. An example of this can be a service in which the provider receives a share of the savings that it generates for its client. |
| |
| H |
| |
| Heresourcing: Heresourcing is the other name for local outsourcing. It is an outsourcing within the same boundaries of the country. |
| |
| I |
| |
| Information technology Outsourcing (ITO)It relates to the outsourcing of the IT services (applications and infrastructure) to any third party service provider. |
| |
| Insourcing: It is process of transferring an outsourced function to the internal department of a company, which is to be managed entirely by the in-house employees. |
| |
| J |
| |
| Joint Venture: The amalgamation of onshore and offshore companies that cooperatively function as business unit such as a manufacturing startup. The joint ventures generally provide a long-term solution and require huge amount of capital investment. |
| |
| Just-in-Time Sourcing: Most of the organizations adopt a continuous sourcing planning process that takes place on a project-by-project basis. Here the sourcing decisions are considered to last only as long as the projects need them. The shared services centers are often managed this way, with the help of organization's internal customers who are free to take their business on a project-by-project basis. This can be through the source they believe can best contribute to the outcomes they seek, whether that source is in the internal or external of the organization. |
| |
| L |
| |
| Logged On. This is a state in which the call center agents have logged on to a system but may or may not be ready to receive any calls. |
| |
| Look Back Queuing. This is the ability for a system or network to look back to the primary queue after the call taken has overflowed to a secondary queue and helps to evaluate the conditions. If the congestion is cleared off, the call can be sent back to the initial queue. |
| |
| M |
| |
| Monitoring: This is also known as called Position Monitoring or Service Observing. This is the process of listening to the telephone calls of the agents for the purpose of maintaining quality. Monitoring can be done in three ways A) Through silent process where agents do not know when they are being monitored, B) side by side process, where the person monitoring the calls sits next to the agent and observes calls or C) record and review, where the calls are recorded and then later played back and assessed carefully by the quality team.. |
| |
| N |
| |
| Next Available Agent: A call distribution method is used to send calls to the next agent who is available to take calls. This method seeks to maintain an equal load across skill groups or services. Where there is no queue, the Next Available Agent reverts to the call to Longest Available Agent. |
| |
| Network Inter-flow: This kind of technology is used in multi-site call centers to create an efficient way of distributing calls between sites. Through integration of sites using network circuits such as T1 circuits and ACD software, calls are routed from one site to another and may be queued simultaneously for agent groups in remote sites. |
| |
| Near shore: ‘Nearshoring’ or Nearshore outsourcing refers to outsourcing within a neighboring nation or nearby region. |
| |
| O |
| |
| Off shoring: Off shoring primarily refers to the practice of carrying out business process of an organization at a remote site. |
| |
| Onshore:Onshore is referred to the business processes that are being executed at the location of the organization itself. |
| |
| Offshore Outsourcing: This is the outsourcing of any BPO operation like information technology, a business process, or manufacturing to a firm whose operation is based outside the country. This is also known as near-shore outsourcing or close-shore outsourcing. |
| |
| Outsourcing is the delegation of non-core business to a third party service provider. The outsourcing can be provided on or off premises; it can be in the same country or in a separate country. Through this a long-term, results-oriented relationship with an external service provider is created. |
| |
| P |
| |
| Predictive Dialing Equipment: Predictive dialer is computerized system that automatically dials the phone number for an agent. Most of the times the number of calls in call center is higher than the number of agents available, but there is system that uses pacing algorithms to predict when agents will become free. |
| |
| Profit Center: This is an accounting term that refers to a particular department or function in the organization that generates profits for the company. |
| |
| Q |
| |
| Queue. This holds the callers until an agent becomes available to receive them. This can also refer to a list of items in a system waiting to be processed like emails. |
| |
| R |
| |
| Request for Information (RFI): It is also known as RFI. It is a document that requests prospective service providers to provide general information pertaining to their business capabilities and strengths, typically keeping in mind the type of requirement. |
| |
| Request for Proposal (RFP): Acronym for RFP. It is a document that requests prospective service providers to propose terms and conditions for the solutions that address a set of requirements. |
| |
| S |
| |
| Service Level Agreement (SLA): The Service Level Agreement or SLA is an agreement defined by the procurer. This contract describes the cost, the nature and the conditions relating to outsourcing services as offered by the vendor. For instance, SLA metrics include quality and response time etc. |
| |
| Scope of Services: These are the services provided under an outsourcing agreement. |
| |
| Screen Monitoring: This is a system through which the call center supervisors are able to remotely monitor the activities of agents' through their computer terminals. |
| |
| Sourcing: Sourcing is everything that the organization has to outsource. This can be internal, external, or a combination of both |
| |
| T |
| |
| Tactical Outsourcing: It is a type of outsourcing that is done to achieve operational efficiencies. This type of outsourcing is approached as a competition between existing internal operations and outside service providers. |
| |
| U |
| |
| Unavailable Work State. This is the work state of an agent that is used to identify a mode not associated with handling of telephone calls. |
| |
| Universal Agent: It usually refers to either to an agent who can handle all kinds of calls or to an agent who can handle both inbound and outbound calls. |
| |
| V |
| |
| Vendor: A vendor is any person or company that sells goods or services to other party in the economic production chain. In BPO sector this term is commonly applied to suppliers of goods and services to their respective clients. |
| |
| Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): This is system where no telephone is needed. It allows two parties to talk using their computers, over the Internet. |
| |
| W |
| |
| Wide Area Network (WAN): This is type of network connection in which multiple computers are connected across a wide area, normally using digital data circuits. |
| |
| Workforce Management (WFM) Software: It is type of software system that depends on the number of available modules like forecast call load, calculation of staff requirements, organizing schedules and track real-time performance of individuals as well as groups. |
| |
| Z |
| |
| Zero-Based Sourcing: It is a type of sourcing decision for each and every aspect of a business's operation. It is re-justified through a planning cycle from an assumed base of zero. This approach ensures that the organization is objectively and consistently re-testing its internal operations against the best available external solutions. |
| |
| Zip Tone: It is an audible notification that a call has arrived. It is also called Zip Tone. |
